PortugalPortaria 220/2023, accessibility requirements of products and services and criteria for the disproportionate burden
Portaria n.º 220/2023, de 20 de julho, arts. 1.º a 4.º e anexos I e II
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
- Instrument type
- a regulation made under an act
What it requires
- If you provide a service covered by Decreto-Lei 82/2022, make your websites, their online applications and your mobile services, including mobile applications, accessible in a consistent and adequate way by making them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (Portaria 220/2023, Art. 2(2)(a), Annex I, Section III(c)); the Portaria names no technical standard.
- Provide information on how your service works, and on its accessibility features and interoperability with assistive devices, through more than one sensory channel, in an understandable and perceivable form, in text formats that can be rendered in other ways, and with a textual alternative for non-text content (Annex I, Section III(b)).
- Where you offer support services such as technical assistance, call centres or training, give information on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies in accessible modes of communication (Annex I, Section III(d)).
- If you provide consumer banking services, offer identification methods, electronic signatures, security and payment services that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and keep information at or below level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Annex I, Section IV(e)).
- If you provide e-commerce services, give accessible information on the accessibility of the products and services sold, and make identification, security and payment functions perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (Annex I, Section IV(g)).
- If you provide an electronic communications service, provide real-time text in addition to voice, total conversation where you provide video, and synchronised voice, text and video in emergency communications passed to the most appropriate public safety answering point (Annex I, Section IV(a)).
- If you provide a service that gives access to audiovisual media services, provide perceivable, operable, understandable and robust electronic programme guides, and transmit subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, audio description, spoken subtitles and sign language interpretation with adequate quality, in sync with sound and video, and under the user's control (Annex I, Section IV(b)).
- If you provide passenger air, bus, rail, maritime or inland waterway transport services, provide information on the accessibility of vehicles, infrastructure and assistance, and on smart ticketing and real-time travel information (Annex I, Section IV(c)); for urban, suburban and regional transport services make the self-service terminals you use accessible (Annex I, Section IV(d)).
- If you provide e-books, deliver text and audio synchronised, do not block assistive technology, give access to the content structure, and supply accessibility metadata (Annex I, Section IV(f)).
- If you manufacture a product within Decreto-Lei 82/2022, design it so that persons with disabilities can perceive, use, understand and operate it, with more than one sensory channel, alternatives to speech and to colour, adjustable magnification, brightness and contrast, and accessible information on its operation and accessibility features (Annex I, Sections I and II; self-service terminals meet Section I only).
- If you rely on the disproportionate-burden defence, base the assessment on the ratio of the net costs of compliance to the total cost of making, distributing or importing the product or providing the service, on the estimate of the costs and benefits to you against the benefits to persons with disabilities, and on the ratio of the net costs to your net turnover (Art. 3, Annex II as republished by Declaração de Retificação 17/2023).
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Penalty structure
Article 29(2) of Decreto-Lei 82/2022 sets two tiers for these administrative offences. A serious offence (contraordenação grave) is fined EUR 650 to EUR 1,500 for an individual and EUR 12,000 to EUR 24,000 for a legal person. A very serious offence (contraordenação muito grave) is fined from EUR 2,000 for an individual and from EUR 24,000 for a legal person, up to the ceilings of Decreto-Lei 433/82, the general regime of administrative offences, which Article 17(1) and (2) of that regime fixes at EUR 3,740.98 for an individual and EUR 44,891.81 for a legal person (computed from the two articles). Attempt and negligence are punishable and the minimum and maximum limits are halved (Article 29(6)), so negligent conduct is fined EUR 325 to EUR 750 (individual, serious), EUR 6,000 to EUR 12,000 (legal person, serious), EUR 1,000 to EUR 1,870.49 (individual, very serious) and EUR 12,000 to EUR 22,445.91 (legal person, very serious), the last two ceilings being those Article 17(3) of the general regime states for negligence. Article 29(3) and (4) rank as very serious the placing on the market of a non-conforming product or service and the omission of the Article 14 assessment, and name the further very serious limbs by sub-item, and rank every other limb as serious. Article 29(5) takes recidivism, the number of non-conforming units and the number of persons affected into account in setting the fine. Accessory sanctions under the general regime may be added (Article 29(8)), and the conviction is always published at the offender's expense, in particular in two national newspapers (Article 29(9)). Paying the fine does not release the offender from the omitted duty where it can still be performed (Article 29(7)). The authorities named in Article 28 investigate, and Article 31(2) gives the power to impose fines and accessory sanctions to the heads or top bodies of those authorities. Fine proceeds are shared 40 percent to the State, 10 percent to the authority that records the offence, 30 percent to the authority that conducts the proceedings, 10 percent to the Instituto Nacional para a Reabilitação and 10 percent to the fund supporting persons with disabilities (Article 32). Article 18(2) of the general regime lets the ceiling rise to the economic benefit drawn from the offence, capped at one third on top of the legal maximum (EUR 4,987.97 for a natural person and EUR 59,855.75 for a legal person as the highest ceilings, computed), and Article 19(2) caps the fine for several offences at twice the highest maximum among them. The accessory sanctions of Article 21 of the general regime include deprivation of the right to take part in public tenders and suspension of licences, for at most two years. The general regime of administrative offences provides no periodic or coercive penalty.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Minimum
- 650
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 44891.81
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The supervising authorities of Decreto-Lei 82/2022, Article 28: ASAE, ANACOM and the municipalities for products, and ANACOM, ERC, AMT, ANAC, IMT, the Banco de Portugal, the CMVM and IGAC for services, each for its own sector (the Portaria sets the requirements those authorities apply).
What this law does
Portaria 220/2023, made under Article 37 of Decreto-Lei 82/2022, defines the accessibility requirements of products and services and the criteria for assessing a disproportionate burden. Article 2(1) applies Sections I and II of Annex I to the products of the Decree-Law, except that self-service terminals meet Section I only. Article 2(2) applies Section III of Annex I to all services, except urban, suburban and regional transport services, and Section IV of Annex I to all services.
Article 2(3) applies the specific requirements of Section V of Annex I to the answering of 112 emergency communications by the most appropriate public safety answering point. Article 2(4) refers the presumption of conformity in Article 26(2) of the Decree-Law to Section VI of Annex I. Section I of Annex I requires products to be designed and made to optimise their foreseeable use by persons with disabilities and to come with accessible information on their operation and accessibility features.
Section I, point 2 of Annex I requires the product and its user interface to allow persons with disabilities to perceive, use, understand and operate the product, with more than one sensory channel, alternatives to speech, adjustable magnification, brightness and contrast, and alternatives to colour and to sound signals. Section II of Annex I requires the packaging and the instructions of the products it covers to be accessible.
Section III(c) of Annex I requires websites, their online applications and mobile services, including mobile applications, to be made accessible in a consistent and adequate way by making them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Section III(b) of Annex I requires information on the operation of the service and on its accessibility features and interoperability with assistive devices to be available through more than one sensory channel and in an understandable, perceivable form.
Section III(d) of Annex I requires support services, where they are available, to give information on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies in accessible modes of communication.
Section IV(a) of Annex I requires electronic communications services to provide real-time text in addition to voice, total conversation where video is provided, and synchronised voice, text and video in emergency communications passed to the most appropriate public safety answering point.
Section IV(b) of Annex I requires services that give access to audiovisual media services to provide perceivable, operable, understandable and robust electronic programme guides, and to transmit access services such as subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, audio description, spoken subtitles and sign language interpretation with adequate quality, in sync with sound and video, and under the user's control.
Section IV(c) and (d) of Annex I require passenger air, bus, rail and waterborne transport services to provide information on the accessibility of vehicles, infrastructure and assistance and on smart ticketing and real-time travel, and urban, suburban and regional transport services to make their self-service terminals accessible.
Section IV(e) of Annex I requires consumer banking services to provide identification methods, electronic signatures, security and payment services that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and information that does not exceed level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Section IV(f) and (g) of Annex I set requirements for e-books, including synchronised text and audio, assistive-technology compatibility and accessibility metadata, and for e-commerce services, including accessible information on the accessibility of the products sold and accessible identification, security and payment functions.
Annex II, as republished in full by Declaração de Retificação 17/2023, sets three criteria for assessing a disproportionate burden: the ratio of the net costs of compliance to the total cost of making, distributing or importing the product or providing the service, an estimate of the costs and benefits to the operators against the benefits to persons with disabilities, and the ratio of the net costs of compliance to the operator's net turnover.
Section VII of Annex I sets functional performance criteria (use without vision, with limited vision, without colour perception, without hearing, with limited hearing, without vocal capability, with limited manipulation or strength or reach, minimising photosensitive seizure triggers, with limited cognition, and with privacy) that apply where Sections I to VI do not address a function, and that may replace a specific technical requirement only where they give equivalent or greater accessibility.
Declaração de Retificação 17/2023 republished Annex II in full to correct an inexactitude in the Portaria. Article 17 of Decreto-Lei 433/82, the general regime of administrative offences, fixes the ceiling of a fine, where a law does not provide otherwise, at EUR 3,740.98 for an individual and EUR 44,891.81 for a legal person, and at EUR 1,870.49 and EUR 22,445.91 for negligence.
Article 29 of Decreto-Lei 82/2022 sets the fines for breach of the accessibility requirements, in two tiers for individuals and legal persons. Article 4 brings the Portaria into force on the day after its publication.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app ships a consumer interface, ships a mobile app, provides telecom services or provides financial services.
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